BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., Jan. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Hydra, operator of the largest performance-based multichannel online advertising platform, today announced the introduction of Hydra CallConvert - a new capability for tracking leads and sales placed over the telephone, driven by online advertising.

"Hydra CallConvert allowed us to provide a call-in number on the landing page we designed and hosted for a nationally marketed education campaign," said Hydra Group CEO Zac Brandenberg. "In just the very first month post-integration of Hydra CallConvert, we saw a 25 percent uptick in total leads versus prior months."

Proven to increase campaign results and designed to work with Hydra's proprietary lead generation platform, Hydra CallConvert offers the unique capability to drive online traffic directly to a live call center and track that offline call with the same level of metrics and analytics that exist for online-only transactions. Unlike the prevailing practice of posting online-captured consumer data for a call back, Hydra CallConvert allows prospective customers to call at the moment of interest. Advertisers benefit by capturing incremental leads from consumers who prefer the phone to the Internet for performing transactions -- especially for those transactions that involve high ticket items or lengthy service contracts. Hydra's publishing partners benefit as well by recording revenue from the additional conversions generated offline.

For this first in-market test of Hydra CallConvert, the Hydra Search division employed organic and pay-per-click search to drive traffic to a landing page it had designed and was hosting for the client. By yielding more conversions for the client's search spend, Hydra CallConvert increased ROI for the campaign and provided the advertiser with the opportunity to decrease their marketing budget and still meet their customer acquisition goals.

According to Brandenberg, Hydra CallConvert increases leads and/or sales generated by enabling consumers who do not feel comfortable submitting information online to call instead. In addition, providing a phone number on the landing page, in and of itself, can drive higher conversions by enhancing credibility with consumers and making them feel safer in responding both online and off. In practice, however, performance-based online advertising campaigns generally have not provided phone numbers as there was no easy way to track and assign credit for phone conversions generated via online advertising.

"By finally being able to provide an automated and scalable cross-channel tracking solution, Hydra CallConvert allows for synergy between online ad programs and traditional call center marketing," said Mason Wiley, Hydra's SVP of Marketing. "As a result, we're able to drive added volume among consumers who prefer to call in, and track it with full performance metrics, even for complex sales that, on average, can take 30 days to close."

About Hydra Group

Hydra provides a performance-based, multichannel ad platform that drives new sales, leads, and ad engagements on a pure cost-per-action (CPA) basis for many of the largest and best-known consumer product and service companies. The company distributes action-oriented, customer acquisition campaigns in search, email, web display and social media, via its network of high volume publishing partners and its own internal media distribution groups. Learn more at www.hydranetwork.com.